Graco Baby Swing > Reviews (18)

Introduction
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I bought one of these swings about two years ago when my son was just 6 weeks old. He was quite a clingy baby, and he wanted to be carried around all the time. I used to carry him in a sling but I couldn't possibly do that all day long, so I was hoping that this swing would help calm him down and send him off to sleep, giving me a well-deserved break. And it did just that. What a relief! Little did I know, that the swing was contributing to the flattening of his head, which later required treatment. I don't blame the swing 100% for his condition, but it was definitely a contributing factor, which could have been prevented with a warning and some advice from the manufacturers. The swing itself is a good product and if used sensibly, it can help relieve some of the stress most new mums experience.

Graco Swings: Two models
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Currently there are two models of battery powered Graco swings available on the market: the

Baby Delight and the Playtime swings. The Baby Delight is a more compact swing with 2 speed settings and retails at around £40-£60. The Playtime swing is somewhat larger with 6 speed settings priced at around £80-£100. The Playtime swing also has a play tray, a detachable mobile and a music centre. Both swings are designed to be used from birth up to 11kg in weight. These swings are widely available from larger shops like Toys R Us or Mothercare and from online retailers like Kiddicare.com. They also regularly come up on Ebay if you don't want to pay the full price.

The 6-speed Musical Swing
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We bought the 6-speed musical swing off Ebay, and although it is the older model from two years ago, it looks just like the current Playtime model and I'm assuming that apart from the cover design it is basically the same product.

Assembly and Storage
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This swing comes in bits and pieces and requires home assembly. The instruction manual is quite clear and I had no problems assembling it all by myself. When assembled, the swing takes up quite a lot of space, but it can be folded up and stood in a corner out of the way when not in use.

Safety
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When the swing is in use, the legs should be completely open, otherwise it can become unstable. When set-up correctly, the swing is very stable even at the highest speed setting. The seat has three recline positions. It's best to use the most reclined setting for very young babies and also when babies are asleep as that is the safest and most comfortable. Our swing has a three-point harness, but a proper five-point harness would be safer. I remember on one occasion when my son was getting a bit too big for the swing, he almost fell out and it was the play-tray that saved him. This wouldn't have happened with a five-point harness.

Care instuctions
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The seat cover is removable and can be machine washed, which is always a good idea with baby products in case of little accidents.

Batteries
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This swing uses 4 X D cell batteries and they're supposed to last for up to 200 hours. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the batteries seemed to be going on forever, eventhough we used the highest setting quite often. We used the swing for hours almost every day and we didn't need to replace the batteries for at least 2-3 months.

Features and Accessories
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This swing has 6 speed settings ranging from hardly any movement up to some proper swinging motion. Nothing drastic though! The mechanism is rather quiet and the monotonous sound it makes is non-intrusive, even soothing.

The swing has a music centre which plays different tunes with adjustable volume. To be honest, I don't find these electronic sounds very pleasant myself and I much rather put a CD on instead so we never used this feature on the swing.

There's a mobile above the swing with three teddies hanging from it. As the mobile doesn't actually move around and all three teddies are exactly the same, I don't really see any value in having it. It just gets in the way when lifting your baby in and out of the swing. The mobile is removable, and that's exactly what we did with it after a while - removed it out of the way.

There's also a play-tray, which opens up so you can lift the baby in and out easily. The play-tray has a removable toy-bar with some plastic rings on it. It offers very little play value as the baby can hardly reach it when strapped down. I think the play-tray serves a better purpose as an additional safety barrier rather than its intended purpose.

Value for Money
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The smaller/cheaper model of these swings seem better value to me. With the bigger model you're essentially paying an extra £40 pounds for some gimmicky features that you don't actually need. The music centre, mobile, play-tray all seem unnecessary and cheap add-ons. And do you really need 6 speeds? Given a second chance, I think I would consider going for the cheaper, smaller option myself.

Finally a word of caution
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Babies these days seem to spend too much time lying on their backs constantly putting pressure on the back of their heads, which may lead to a condition called plagiocephaly, flattening of the head. Extensive use of products like baby swings and rockers may contribute to this condition especially if a baby is already showing signs of some degree of flattening. Manufacturers of these products should be aware of this danger and warn consumers about the possibility of this happening. Also, I think that the seats should be cushioned better to minimise the pressure on the baby's head. You can try using a small memory foam cushion under the baby's head or a baby-sized neck support to keep the baby's head away from the back of the seat, but at the same time always make sure that the baby is securely strapped into the seat.

If you're concerned about your baby's headshape at all you might find one of these websites useful for information and support: www.headstart4babies.co.uk and http://groups.msn.com/PlagioUK